Seven premium trains will soon turn into mobile billboards as the Indian Railways has sold its branding rights for almost Rs. 200 crore to raise non-operational revenue.

The railways e-auctioned two Delhi-Mumbai Rajdhanis, Guwahati Rajdhani, two Mumbai-Ahmedabad Shatabdis, Delhi-Amritsar Shatabdi, and a Jan Shatabdi to media buying agencies for vinyl wrapping and other branding activities in contracts of five years extendable to five more years, a railway board official said.

The railways plans to offer other premium trains too to advertisers to at least partly make up for its revenue loss in passenger segment. “We’ve almost 100 more premium trains including Duranto, Tejas and Uday. All would be e-auctioned on long-term contract. But the payment would be upfront,” the official told ET.

Rights for ad space inside trains will be auctioned separately. The railways eyes revenue of Rs. 1,700 crore this year through long-term contracts for train branding and railway display network. It is in talks with Hindustan Unilever and Patanjali Ayurved to sell branding and promotion rights.

The railways will also start auctions for another ad vehicle — Radio Rail, an on-board entertainment system. “The service will be started on 1,000 trains. We are in touch with all major players to provide speakers and equipment for 60,000 coaches in a phased manner,” the official said. The railways wants to raise about Rs 10,000 crore a year through non-operational revenue route.

The Railways’ brand building exercise is a good idea. Resources should also be put to better use to provide cleaner more comfortable and faster rail services. Investment to modernise signaling will improve track use and increase speeds. What’s required is to improve passenger amenities and adopt a business-like approach to augment finances.